Marauders and Company read the Sorcerer's Stone
by Sasha Gray
Summary: The Golden Trio, Ginny, and Neville go back in time to meet Lily, Alice, Frank, and the Marauders. They take with them, seven books telling of Harry's years at Hogwarts. I am really bad at summaries, so just READ THE STORY!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All the characters belong to J.K Rowling, and all words in **bold** belong to her as well. ENJOY!

Sirius Black was walking down the corridor on the first day of Christmas break when a boy with bright red hair and a girl with bushy brown hair ran up to him.

"You're Sirius Black, right?" the girl questioned. Sirius grinned at her.

"Yep, the one and the only." He jumped back as she whipped out her wand. The girl pointed it at him and said, "Silencio." The next thing Sirius knew, a brown bag was thrown over his head and he was knocked off his feet. Two strong pairs of hands grabbed him and pulled him up several flights of stairs and into an empty room. They tied him to a chair.

"What is going on!" Sirius shouted as the silencing spell was lifted and the bag taken off his head.

"Well, if you'd stop screaming, we'd tell you," a very masculine voice said from behind him. Sirius struggled against his bonds to see who had spoken, but they were tied to tightly. He heard a deep chuckle and then footsteps. A very tall, very muscular man walked into the light. He had hair that looked exactly like Sirius' best friend James' hair. He was wearing the same round glasses, jeans, and a T-shirt that was tight around his muscular arms. He had a lightning shaped scar on his forehead, along with one that was slightly visible on his arm, one that stood out across the back of his hand, several on his shoulders, and a long one going from the top of his cheek to his jaw.

"Who are you?" Sirius asked.

"I'm Harry Potter, and these are my friends, Ron and Hermione." He gestured to the red head and the girl that had silenced him.

"And why am I here?" Sirius asked, indignantly. Harry chuckled.

"Because we happen to know that you are in possession of a map that we need to find a couple of people. We have a copy of said map, but it only works for our time," Harry shrugged and watched as Sirius' mouth fell open.

"How do you know about the map?"

"I inherited it from my father, kind of," Harry said, looking like he was deep in thought. Ron and Hermione laughed.

"Who's your father?"

"James Potter," Harry told him, laughing at the look on Sirius' face. "So, if you would kindly let us see the map, we can go grab a couple of people and tell you an interesting story." Sirius nodded and Harry flicked his wand. The ropes that bound Sirius fell away and he reached into his pocket and pulled out an old piece of parchment. He handed it to Harry and stood up. As he did, Ron and Hermione immediately had their wands out and were pointing them at him. He held up his hands defensively.

"Whoa, wait, I just think that it would be a good idea for me to go with him, that way, the guys would believe him." Harry shrugged his shoulders at Ron and they lowered their wands and sat on the couch that appeared behind them.

"Fix this place up while we're gone," Harry called over his shoulder as he and Sirius walked out of the room.

"So, are you actually from the future?" Sirius asked Harry.

"Yep, they just invented a new time turner that allows you to travel back through years instead of just hours," Harry told him.

"How old are you?"

"I'm going to turn eighteen next month and Ron and 'Mione are eighteen. You are seventeen right now?" Harry asked Sirius, who nodded. "Good, I thought we had come back to far but I guess not." Harry looked at the map in his hands and grinned. "I'm gonna need you to tell me the password," he told Sirius as they stepped up to the Fat Lady.

"Droobles," Sirius told her. She looked at Harry suspiciously but swung forward anyways. They entered the Gryffindor Common room and Harry headed for the girls stairs. Sirius watched incredulously as Harry tapped a brick and walked up the stairs, for the Marauders had not yet found out how to make it up the girls stairs without flying. He waited on the couch for a few minutes before Harry came back down in front of Alice Prewett and Lily Evans. They also stared at Harry as he made his way up to the boys dorm, returning moments later with Frank Longbottom, James Potter, and Remus Lupin.

Harry surveyed them, making sure he had rounded them all up before motioning for them to follow him and walking out of the portrait hole.

"Hey, Harry," Sirius called as he ran to catch up with him, "aren't you going to get Peter, too?" The dark look in Harry's eyes did not pass unnoticed by Sirius.

"No," Harry said shortly before quickening his pace.

The group reached the Room of Requirement quickly and hurried through the door.

"Hey, Nev, bout time you got here," Harry said, greeting another boy who was not quite as tall as Harry, but close. The boy, Neville, stood up from the couch and shook Harry's out stretched hand. He turned to look at the group of seventh years before saying to Harry, "Yep, took us a while to get the little monsters on the train, but we managed." He sat on the couch again as Harry sat in an armchair.

"Make yourselves at home," Harry said, waving the group that was standing awkwardly at the door into the room. James cautiously sat beside Lily and Sirius on one couch while Remus, Alice and Frank sat on another.

"Well," Hermione started, "I think we should start by telling you why we came back to find you. I'm sure that Harry already told you that we are from the future?" The kids from the past nodded. "Well, we decided that we wanted to come and visit you and tell you about our past which is your future, seeing as Harry and Neville grew up not knowing their parents. You will be staying in here for the rest of the holidays, but once you walk out of this room, you won't remember a thing, seeing as how we might not exist if you change something."

"Two of you in this room are my parents," Harry cut her off. Sirius gasped and looked between James and Lily.

"I'm your mum," Lily choked. She could see his eyes which were the exact same shade as hers. Harry nodded and she squealed, jumping up from the couch to hug him like only a mother could. He gripped her, grinning. That was the first time he remembered hugging his mum.

"Then I'm your dad?" James asked. Harry nodded again and James smiled. So he _did_ end up marrying Lily.

Lily slowly let go of her son and sat beside James, closer than last time.

"Also," Neville began, "two of you in here are my parents." Alice squeaked with happiness and hugged him while Frank patted her arm.

"Wait," Remus said, "you said that they grew up never knowing their parents so does that mean -," he gulped. James and Lily died.

"No, not entirely," Harry conceded, "my parents were killed by old Voldy," James hugged Lily as she shivered, fear written across her face, "but Nev's parents. . .," he trailed off, looking at Neville.

Neville glanced at the floor before looking back up at Frank and Alice.

"You were tortured into insanity by Voldemort's followers." Alice let out a shriek and fell back against Frank, who wrapped his arms around her comfortingly.

Ron cleared his throat and said, "Well, anyways, we've come to tell you about us and our past, and we are going to do that by reading these." He pulled seven books out of a bag on the floor. "They tell all about Harry's years at Hogwarts."

"I'll read first, I guess," Hermione said, reaching for the first book.

**Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone** she began **The Boy Who Lived. **

"What does that mean?" Remus asked. Hermione ignored him and continued to read.

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

"I don't like them already," Sirius stated, getting nods from Remus, James and Frank.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. **

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.**

"Well, that is such a flattering description," James said as Sirius pretended to vomit. Lily, however, shivered. Those people sounded much like her sister, Petunia and her boyfriend, Vernon.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

"That is a hideous name," commented Alice. The others nodded in agreement.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret—**

"OH, it's getting intense," Sirius chuckled. He was hushed by kids from the future and a shoe that had been thrown at him by Alice.

—**and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"WHAT?" both James and Sirius shouted.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her god-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that."**

Lily sighed.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work—**

"I wonder what his problem is." Remus wondered. Sirius shook his head.

"His brain has been addled by the adult world. Shame really."

"I think he was always like that," Lily whispered. They turned to look at her.

"Why do you think that?" Alice asked. Lily waved her off.

"I don't know if I'm right yet, I'll tell you if I am."

– **and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley—**

"Little tyke? Really, by the description of Mr. Dursley, I doubt he is little and he is a brat," Alice pointed out.

—**as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map.**

"MINNIE!" James and Sirius cried. Remus grinned and nodded.

"Wait," Frank said, "how can you be sure that is the Professor?"

"Because we know Minnie," James told him.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen – then he jerked his head around again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back.**

"I hope he crashes," Frank said.

"Wouldn't get your hopes up, sweetie," Alice told him, patting his hand.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"Well, he lives an interesting life."

"Hush, James and we can finish this chapter."

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"But, wizards wouldn't be that careless, would they?" Alice asked.

"Not normally, something big must have happened," Frank said excitedly.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes – **

"Of course he can't."

"Shut up."

—**the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt – these people were obviously collecting for something . . . yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

"Oh goodie, can you tell us what the wizards were whispering about now?"

"Hush, Sirius."

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. **_**He**_** didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight**

"That's odd," Remus mused.

**though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.**

"Never seen an owl!" James exclaimed.

"Yeah, of course, muggles never see owls," Lily said.

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"He's pleasant," Sirius scoffed. James snorted and Remus smirked.

**He was in a very good mood—**

"That can't last long," Frank said.

—**until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

"What a fatty."

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin.**

"Um, duh."

"SIRIUS SHUT UP!"

**It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"**The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard—."**

James, Sirius and Remus leaned forward to hear what Hermione was reading.

"—**yes, their son, Harry –"**

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whispers as if her wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking . . . no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew **_**was **_**called Harry.**

"Wow, he doesn't even know his nephew's name. That is sad," Alice said.

**He'd never seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her – if **_**he'd**_** had a sister like that . . . but all the same, those people in cloaks . . .**

Lily shivered again. That Mrs. Dursley sounded exactly like Petunia.

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"**Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face spilt into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passerby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sit, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!"**

"WHAT!" everybody in the room screamed. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville laughed.

"**Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off."**

"Who would want to hug him?" Alice asked.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"Who doesn't like imagination?" James asked.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw – and it didn't improve his mood – was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.**

"MINNIE!" James and Sirius shouted again.

**It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife. **

**Mrs. Dursley had a nice, normal say. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't").**

"Seriously, that kid is the biggest brat ever!" Frank exclaimed.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news: "And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin.**

"What a prat," James sneered.

"**Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"**Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars!"**

"I doubt they were shooting stars."

"**Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early – it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters . . . Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er – Petunia,"**

Lily gasped and the others looked at her.

"What Lily?" Alice asked.

"My sisters name is Petunia and this woman sounds exactly like her. She has a boyfriend names Vernon Dursley." The others gasped except James. He grinned and Remus looked at him suspiciously.

"**,dear – you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she sisn't have a sister.**

"**No," she said, sharply. "Why?"**

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls . . . shooting stars . . . and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today . . ."**

"_**So?**_**" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"**Well, I just thought . . . maybe . . . it was something to do with . . . you know . . . **_**her**_** crowd."**

"That's polite," Frank scoffed.

"**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son – he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

"**I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

"**What's his name again? Howard isn't it?"**

"**Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Thanks a lot, Aunt Petunia," Harry muttered so that only the kids from the future could hear him.

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word in the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there.**

"MINNIE!"

"Seriously?"

"No, Siriusly!"

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did . . . if it got out that they were related to a pair of – well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters **_**were**_** involved, there was no reason for the, to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind . . . . He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on – he yawned and turned over – it couldn't affect **_**them **_**. . . .**

"Somehow, I doubt that," Remus said. The others agreed.

**How very wrong he was.**

"Told you."

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner if Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

Sirius chuckled, "I take it that I couldn't beat Minnie at a staring contest, huh?"

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed. Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.**

"That's definitely Dumbledore," Lily said.

**He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice.**

"That's definitely Dumbledore," Sirius said.

"I just said that!"

"Nope, I did."

"I said it first."

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty, can we continue reading please?" Alice asked. Lily grinned at her while Sirius glared and crossed his arms.

**This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

"TOLD YOU!" Lily and Sirius shouted at the same time.

"GOSH, could you stop arguing like little girls and read the book?" Ron asked.

"Oh, hush," Sirius huffed, sticking his tongue out at Ron.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"That's rude."

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again – the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even the beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the car. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"I TOLD YOU!" Sirius and James shouted, then glared at each other. Remus leaned over and smacked the both on the back of the head.

"Same time; continue 'Mione."

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

"She looks exactly like that now," Sirius said fondly.

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently.**

"**You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no – even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. 'I heard it. Flocks of owls . . .shooting stars. . . . Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something."**

"Has anyone wondered where we are in this story?" Remus asked. Sirius shrugged and Alice shook her head.

"**Shooting stars down in Kent – I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"That is a long time with nothing to celebrate!" Lily exclaimed.

"**I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

"I wonder what the rumors were about," Frank said.

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something but he didn't , so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really **_**has**_** gone, Dumbledore?"**

"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. 'We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"**A **_**what**_**?"**

"**A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who **_**has**_** gone –"**

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense – for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **_**Voldemort**_**."**

"Fear of a name, only increases the fear of the thing itself," Lily recited. Dumbledore had told her the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice.**

"**It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"**I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, **_**Voldemort**_**, was frightened of."**

"It is weird to think that Dumbledore scares old Moldy-shorts, but I'm glad he does," James said.

"**You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"**Only because you are too – well – **_**noble**_** to use them."**

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she like my new earmuffs."**

Everyone laughed at that.

"Oh, Dumbledore is awesome!" Sirius laughed.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumors**_** that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.**

"Ah, the stare," James sighed.

**It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

"**What they're **_**saying**_**," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up at Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are – are – that they're – **_**dead**_**."**

James and Lily looked terrified, although, James had a smug look in his eye, but still terrified.

"I can't believe it," Sirius said, ". . . James actually marries Lily!" Sirius had an amazed look on his face. James glanced at Lily and saw the corners of her mouth twitch. He smirked and leaned back in his seat.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

"**Lily and James . . . I can't believe it . . . I didn't want to believe it . . . Oh, Albus . . ."**

"Nice to know she care for us so much," James said, trying to lighten the mood.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know . . . I know . . ." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke – that's why he's gone."**

Time seemed to stop for a second before Remus broke the silence.

"He's gone? Voldemort was stopped by a one year old?"

"My son is awesome!" James cheered, punching the air with his fist. Lily laughed at him, shaking her head.

"Thanks, Dad," Harry grinned.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

"**It's – it's **_**true**_**?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done . . . all the people he's killed . . . he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding . . . of all the things to stop him . . . but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"**We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore., though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who just told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

"I suppose that Hagrid is bringing Harry from -," James paused; he didn't know where he and Lily had died, and didn't really want to know either.

"**Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "and I don't suppose you're going to tell me **_**why**_** you're here, of all places?"**

"**I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he had left now."**

"**You don't mean – you **_**can't**_** mean the people who live **_**here**_**?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore – you can't."**

"Seriously! Petunia and her whale husband are the last people I would want my son to go to!" Lily cried. Alice nodded in agreement, having met Petunia before.

"**I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got a son – I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"**it's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall.**

"Yes, because I bet they will accept them after reading a letter."

"**Really Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him!"**

"See! Even Minnie agrees with me!"

"Yes we get it, Sirius."

"**He'll be famous – a legend – I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future **("That would be awesome" "Hush Sirius!) **– there will be books written about Harry **("Ok, that would really cool," Lily admitted) **– every child in our world will know his name!"**

"**Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't remember!"**

"He has a point, actually," Remus said, "I mean, if he were to go live with some wizarding family, then he would get a big head and think he could do things he really can't."

"He shouldn't have to live with them anyways," James said through gritted teeth. Lily nodded and scooted closer to him. He grinned at Sirius who was smirking at him.

"**Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes – yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"**Hagrid's bringing him."**

"That's good, I'd trust Hagrid with my life," Frank nodded. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all nodded in agreement."

"**You think it – **_**wise **_**– to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"Awesome, Frank, you're like Dumbledore!"

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to – what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky – and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Awesome!" Alice and Sirius shouted. Lily rolled her eyes and Hermione continued to read.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide.**

"Hagrid!" James cheered. Lily laughed.

**He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so **_**wild **_**– long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

"Sweet, I get a motorcycle in the future!" Sirius squealed. The Trio and Neville laughed as Sirius bounced up and down, while the kids from the past rolled their eyes.

"**No problems, were there?"**

"**No, sir – house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around."**

The tension in the room grew a little at the mention of James and Lily dying, no one could believe it.

"**He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

"I'm glad he looks like James, but I wonder what the cut was from," Lily said, putting a hand on her chin. Remus shrugged.

"Oh, maybe it was from a crocodile! He probably pulled out a knife and cut him!" (Chocolate to anyone that got the AVPM reference) They turned to stare at Sirius. He hid his face.

"**Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall. **

"**Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

"**Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London underground."**

"That's disturbing."

"**Well – give him here, Hagrid – we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

"**Could I – could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"Aw, Hagrid's crying," Alice and Lily cooed.

"**Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

"**S-s-sorry!" sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted Handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it – Lily an' James dead – an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles –"**

"**Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"They seem to really care about you Harry," Hermione said. Harry shrugged.

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "That's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join in the celebrations."**

"I don't think we'd be celebrating seeing as how our best friends just died," Remus said sadly.

"**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall – Professor Dumbledore, sir." **

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

"**I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

"She's really gonna miss us, Lils," James said. Lily smiled as she thought of her favorite teacher.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

"You know, I've always wondered how I ended up at Aunt Petunia's place. I wish they could have waited till morning, I remember that it was freezing out there," Harry said.

"**Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley. . . . He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"**

"That's the end of the chapter," Hermione said, closing the book and handing it to Harry.

"I hope that she treats you right," Lily said. Harry looked at her then quickly away, not wanting to give anything away. Truth be told, he really didn't want Neville, Ron, and Hermione to know what exactly happened at Privet Drive. They would fuss over him and he really didn't want their pity.

"Just wondering here," Sirius started, "but how did you get all of those scars?" Harry just smiled at him mysteriously and opened the book to the next chapter.

Sirius huffed in annoyance.

A/N YAY! My first fanfic is up for all to read. I am apologizing now for any spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes that I make. I hope that I will get all of the chapters up fast. I would also like to say that yes, this is going to be one of those cliché fics where they read the entire book series created by J.K. Rowling, so I don't want any complaints about that because it is TO BAD!

P.S this is the updated version because one of my friends pointed out that I had switched between Hermione reading, so I apologize for that.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I, Sasha, sit here at my humble computer and type this story while I procrastinate in doing my horrible homework. ALLITERATION BOOM! Anyway, any words you see that are written bold were written by the queen (J.K. Rowling) and anything else was written by me. All of the characters you see are also of the queen's creation. Thanks :)!

As Harry was about to start reading the next chapter, there was a knock on the door. Ron, Neville, and Harry immediately leapt up with wands out and crept over to the door. Harry opened in slightly and smiled before leaning his head out and speaking quietly with someone.

He threw the door open and led a red-haired girl into the room.

"Everyone, this is my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley, who was late because she had a training practice with Harpies today." James and Sirius stared at her with their mouths open.

"You play for the Harpies!" they exclaimed. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes, massaging her temples with her thumbs. Ginny grinned at the two excited pranksters.

"Yep," she told them, "but I really want to hear this story, so read Harry!" Harry picked the book back up as Ginny sat down beside him.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.**

"Which is not really that surprising seeing as how Petunia hates all kinds of change," Lily said. Harry nodded in agreement to her statement.

**The sun rose on the same tiny front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets – **

"That is such a flattering description of him; the author could have at least insulted him a little bit!" Harry exclaimed, not being sarcastic at all.

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

Lily sighed because she knew that her sister was going to treat her son as if he were monster. While James looked outraged at the treatment the Dursleys were already showing his son, and they were only on the second chapter of the book!

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

** "Up! Get up! Now!"**

** Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

** "Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it.**

"Whoa, you can remember that far back? Most people only things after they were four or five and you were barely a year old!" Lily exclaimed, looking at Harry with wide eyes. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Sometimes I remember things clearly in dreams, but I can't remember you guys at all. Although, at times I can hear you talking," he told her. Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Neville shuddered, remembering the horrible dementors at Hogwarts.

**He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

** His aunt was back outside the door.**

** "Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"I feel your pain Harry; she used to wake me up like that all the time during the summer."

** "Nearly," Harry said. **

** "Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"They make you cook!" James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius shouted. Harry nodded.

"_That's _why you make such delicious food," Ginny said, smacking herself lightly on the forehead. He chuckled at her and turned back to the book.

** Harry groaned.**

** "What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

** "Nothing, nothing . . ."**

** Dudley's birthday – how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider **(Ron shuddered) **off one of them, put them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

"WHAT!" everyone but Harry shouted. He winced, having been afraid this would happen.

"She-she-she . . ." Lily stuttered in her rage.

"SHE MAKES YOU SLEEP UNDER A BLOODY STAIRCASE!" James yelled for her. Harry nodded weakly.

"I want to murder her, I will murder her I am going to . . ." Sirius put his hand over her mouth while she said some very bad things about what she was going to do to Petunia when she saw her next. By the time she was done, everyone looked worriedly at her, hoping that they wouldn't be on the receiving end of her wrath.

** When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise – unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. **

Lily was absolutely shaking with fury at how Petunia and her family were treating Harry. James glanced at her before wrapping his arms around her. She sighed and leaned into him with a sad look on her face. Behind her head, Sirius was giving James a 'thumbs up.'

**Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

** Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"Nope," Sirius said happily, "James always looked like that too."

"Hey!" James shouted.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old cloths of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. **

"Yeah, he looks like me. I'm glad he got your eyes though, Lils," James said.

"Yeah," Sirius muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear, "but let's hope he didn't get his mother's temper."

"What?" Lily asked, her eyes narrowed. He held his hand up defensively.

"Nothing, nothing, I never said anything."

"He did," Neville told them.

"Did what?"

"He got his mother's temper."

"Hey!" Harry and Lily exclaimed, matching eyes bright and matching tempers flaring. Remus motioned for Harry to continue reading.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

James sighed and shook his head.

**The only thing Harry liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

This statement caused the kids from the future to gape at Harry.

"What? Why are you staring at him?" Sirius questioned.

"Because," Ginny started, "he hates his scar. He always wished he didn't have it and we are surprised that he liked it at one point."

"Oh, yeah that is weird."

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

** "In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"We didn't die in a car crash, Petunia!" Lily snapped, "Also, how is he supposed to learn anything if he doesn't ask questions?"

_**Don't ask questions – **_**that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

** Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

** "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of morning greeting.**

"Well, that's never, ever, never, never, ever… EVER going to work," Sirius stated.

"Yeah, Potter hair won't tame, it's just one thing we have to live with," James sighed, messing up said hair.

"I know right!" Harry exclaimed, pushing his hand through his hair much like his dad was at the moment.

** About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way – all over the place.**

** Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"Hey! He kind of looks like Peter!" Sirius exclaimed. The others nodded in agreement.

"Wait," Lily said, "You guys know Peter too?"

"Yeah, we met him once or twice," Ron said nervously, "Well, hurry up and read, Harry."

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel – Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Everyone burst into laughter as Harry looked at them sheepishly. "Nice description, Pup," Sirius said, patting his shoulder. Harry grinned at him and turned back to the book.

** Harry put the plate of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

** "Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father, "That's two less than last year."**

"Um, brat please," Alice spat. Lily sighed, thinking of how bad her sister spoiled her nephew.

** "Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."**

** "All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"Wow, I mean, wow," Sirius started, "I know James was spoiled and everything, but he never got that many presents. I seriously doubt that they earn enough money to buy all of that."

Remus nodded his head in agreement, "Yeah, he's only the director of Grunnings, how is he getting that much money?" They turned to Harry for an answer, but only received a shrug.

** Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another **_**two **_**presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? **_**Two**_** more presents. Is that all right?"**

"She's worse than James at making up nicknames," Lily sighed. Everyone present nodded in agreement before James let out an offended "HEY!"

** Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty . . . thirty . . ."**

"That's pathetic, he can't even count! I mean, even Sirius can count and if he can, everyone can!" Alice shouted.

"What is this, pick on Sirius day?"

"More like pick on James day. They've taken more shots at me than at you."

"I beg to differ -," Sirius started to protest before he was cut off by Frank.

"How about you both share that magnificent holiday while we finish reading this book?" Everyone chuckled at that while James and Sirius looked offended. Frank just shrugged at them and looked back at Harry.

** "Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

** "Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

** Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

** "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

** At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, **(Sirius raised his and immediately put it down when Ginny shot him a look.) **and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried. **

** "Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"Wait," Ginny said, "They never took you anywhere?" Harry confirmed her question.

"Yeah, I guess they took me some places if Mrs. Figg was gone. They didn't really acknowledge me. Heck, I didn't even know that they knew my name until the Hogwarts letters got there."

"So, you got more than one Hogwarts letter," Sirius prompted, raising an eyebrow at him. Harry just grinned at him and didn't answer the unspoken question.

** Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

Neville flinched as he heard about his friends childhood. He always thought that Harry had the best of everything. Sure, when he got to Hogwarts he found a lot of trouble, but Neville thought that before that he had been pampered. Now he was truly sorry for whatever he had thought.

** "Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again. **

Lily opened her mouth to scold him for thinking like that, but thought better of it when she thought of the old cat lady that lived down the street from her.

"Yuck, she sounds just like my grandmum!" Sirius shouted.

James laughed, "but Padfoot, your grandmum is dead!"

"Yeah, but that is how I would imagine her to be if she were still alive."

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

** "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

** The Dursleys often spoke of Harry like this, as though he wasn't there – or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

As soon as he read this, the four women in the room gave him a hug . . . at the same time! DUN DUN DUNNNNNN! Harry looked at the other men for help as his face started to turn blue. They just laughed at his predicament. THE INJUSTICE!

Harry finally managed to extract himself from the hug and continued to read.

** "What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?"**

** "On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

** "You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

** Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd swallowed a lemon.**

Lily huffed, "That's how she looks anyways."

** "And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

** "I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

** "I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, ". . . and leave him in the car . . . ."**

"HE IS NOT A DOG!" Lily screamed at the book. Sirius opened his mouth to say something until Remus put a hand over his mouth. Sirius continued to look upset and glared at Lily which cause Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny to laugh.

** "That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone. . . ."**

Lily growled at the book.

** Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying – it had been years since he'd really cried – but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

Sirius laughed. "Isn't that how you got a new broom every year, Prongs?" he asked James. James snorted. "Jealous, Padfoot?" he shot back.

"Yeah right, your just jealous that your mum loves me more!"

"Gasp! Take that back!"

"Never!" James pulled a sword out of a nearby cabinet along with a shield. He hit the sword against the shield.

"ADVANCE FORTH BROTHEREN!" Sirius growled and pulled out a similar sword.

"CHAAAAARRRRGGGGGEEEEEE!" he shouted before running straight at James. James ducked and Sirius missed him. This continued for five minutes until Harry stood up and pulled a sword out of yet another cabinet. He jumped into the middle of the fight and a minute later, both James and Sirius were clutching fake wounds.

"I've been hit!" they chanted over and over again until they noticed that it was Harry standing over them and smirking.

"HA! Look at that, bested by your own son, eh Prongs?" Sirius grinned over at James.

"Yeah, well, you were bested by your own godson, and I helped make him so technically I BEAT YOU!"

"TAKE THAT BACK YOU BEAST!"

"SAYS THE BEAST!" That last comment made Sirius growl and he reached for his sword, only to grab Lily's toe as she stood towering above both of them, green eyes flashing.

"I suggest you go and sit back down," she told them, leaving no room for objection. James and Sirius silently walked back to the couches and sat down.

** "Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

Neville snorted, "Dinky Duddydums, good lord, that's worse than Voldemort!"

** "I . . . don't . . . want . . . him . . . t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

** Just then, the doorbell rang – "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Of course he did, wouldn't want to look like a crybaby in front of his friends," Frank scoffed.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

"I swear, Vernon, if you threaten him, I… will… kill…you!" Lily hissed.

** "I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now boy, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

Lily stood up and headed to the door and was about to reach for the handle, when James grabbed her around the waist and carried her back over to the couch.

** "I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly . . ."**

** But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

** The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. **

** Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

Harry glanced around at them and saw that the girls were trying to hold back smiles while the guys were outright smirking. He sighed, "Go ahead and laugh."

Immediately, the group started to laugh. James, Sirius, and Remus fell on the ground and rolled around, clutching their stomachs.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

"Yeah, that shut you up, didn't it?" Harry chuckled as he looked around at the now quiet group.

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he **_**couldn't**_** explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Wait, they punished you for something you couldn't have done?" Ron asked. Harry nodded.

"Yeah, Petunia knows it was accidental magic, but the problem is that she hates magic," Lily sighed.

"Actually, it wasn't accidental magic," James said, "Have you ever had a haircut, Harry?" He was answered with a shake of a head and a wide-eyed look. "That's because we have part metamorph powers for our hair, watch." James had his hair grow longer and then shorter. Harry copied his father's movements.

"Whoa!"

"Yeah, the bad part is that the length is the only thing we can control. It looks like this all the time," James finished, rubbing his head and earning a laugh.

** Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls). The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly would fit Harry.**

"That's some pretty cool accidental magic," Alice said, raising her eyebrows.

**Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

** On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"Nice," Sirius laughed.

"You can fly?" James asked, looking wide-eyed at his son. Harry nodded.

"Just like mum," he said proudly. Lily blushed when everyone turned and look at her.

"How did you know that?" she asked, trying to get her blush under control.

"I saw it in a memory once," Harry said sadly before turning back to the book.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

Everyone snorted at that explanation. Harry glared at them.

"I was only ten, geez!"

** But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. **

** While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.**

"You know," Sirius mused, "something's telling me that he doesn't like you very much."

"I was thinking the same thing!" Ron exclaimed. They high-fived right before they were smacked upside the head by James and Harry. Neville glanced around at the people surrounding him.

"SHUT UP REAL QUICK!" he called. They looked at him. "I just realized something really cool. Okay, so everyone realizes how James and Harry look freakishly alike, right?" he got nods. "And everyone sees how Lily and Ginny look alike?" more nods, "It's obvious that Remus and Hermione are very similar in many ways? And that Ron and Sirius have the same personality?" It dawned on everyone quickly.

"Whoa! That is cool, Neville!" Alice shouted, bouncing up and down. He chuckled at her.

**This morning, it was motorcycles.**

** ". . . roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said as a motorcycle overtook them.**

** "I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Harry!" Lily said in an exasperated tone. He grinned at her sheepishly.

** Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"Yes, they do," Sirius said.

"They don't in the muggle world, Sirius," Ginny said.

** Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

** "I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

** But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was a dream or even a cartoon – they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

** It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

"Hey," Lily huffed, "Those were always my favorite!" Harry nodded in agreement.

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

Even Remus laughed as they thought about Harry's description of his cousin.

"Good one Harry," Alice panted between laughs.

** Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time.**

Frank sighed.

"What?" James asked him.

"Well, that right there lets us know that something bad is going to happen really soon."

"Is something bad going to happen really soon?" Remus asked Harry, who just smiled at them mysteriously. Neville, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione sat up a little straighter, remembering what Harry had said about talking to a snake once before.

**He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.**

Lily growled and James rubbed her back soothingly even though he was angry about it, too.

**They ate at the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

"Spoiled brat," Ron coughed.

** Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"Sometimes I wish I wasn't always right," Frank sighed.

"Don't worry," Alice told him, "you aren't always right."

** After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.**

Sirius shivered. "I hate snakes."

"I guess it comes from hating your family, huh?" James asked.

Sirius shook his head, "Nope, my dad had a snake and my mum tried to get it to hurt me once." James nodded, understandingly.

**In fact, it was fast asleep.**

** Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"**Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

"Well, what did you expect it to do, jump through a hoop?" Alice exclaimed, shaking her head at the stupidity of these people.

** "This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

** Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.**

"See, Harry agrees with me!"

**It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

Lily was seething and Hermione looked quite distressed at yet another description of her best friend's life before Hogwarts. Ginny had the same expression as Lily and was quietly cursing the Dursleys.

** The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with Harry's. **

_**It winked.**_

"Okay, that's not normal," Sirius said, shivering at the thought of a giant winking snake.

** Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"Why would you wink back at a snake?" Neville asked. Harry shrugged.

"I didn't really even process what was going on. I was like whoa! This snake winked at me. I was so surprised and it seemed like the right thing to do."

** The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

** "**_**I get that all the time."**_

"And now you are communicating with a snake," James said, his eyes wide.

** "I know" Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

** The snake nodded vigorously.**

** "Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

** The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

** Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

** "Was it nice there?"**

** The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see – so you've never been to Brazil?"**

** As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. **

The group in the room groaned as they thought about the punishment Harry would get if the Dursleys found out that he had been talking to a snake.

"**DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T **_**BELIEVE**_** WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

** Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

** "Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.**

Everyone winced.

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened – one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of fear.**

They leaned towards Harry to hear better.

** Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"You vanished the glass!" Frank asked, his eyebrows disappearing under his bangs.

"Well, yeah, I guess," Harry shrugged.

"You don't understand, Harry, that's not normal accidental magic. It usually takes a wand to vanish something like that. I've never heard of someone accidentally vanish something, ever!" Frank exclaimed. Harry shrugged.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

** As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come. . . . Thanksss, amigo."**

"YOU'RE A PARSELMOUTH!" Lily, James, Remus, Alice, and Frank shouted. Harry nodded while Ron, Hermione and Neville remembered when Harry actually found he was a "Parselmouth" and how the how school had turned against him, again.

** The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

** "But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

** The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. **

"It should have," Ginny said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. James, Sirius, and Remus looked at her and then at Lily and back again before both women angrily shouted, "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!"

Remus spoke up, "You two are so similar."

"Yeah," James added, "You both have red hair, which is one of the reasons you both are ending up with Potter men."

"And you have the same temper," Sirius added, quickly flinging himself behind Remus for cover when both red-heads turned to glare at him.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"NO!" everyone groaned.

** Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry.**

"You touch my son and you're a dead man, Dursley," James said, the wand in his hand sparking.

**He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go – cupboard – stay – no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"Because alcohol solves all of the world's problems," Alice remarked.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

Ron looked like he couldn't believe that Harry didn't have food. Ginny looked as if she could kill with a glance.

** He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash.**

"We didn't die in a car crash, Harry," Lily and James said together. Harry smiled at them.

"I know that now," he said. They smiled at him.

**He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

"You can remember back that far! You were only like a year old!" Frank exclaimed. Lily sniffed and snuggled her head into James' shoulder. Sirius winked at him.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

** When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.**

Lily whimpered again and James put a hand on her shoulder.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. **

James smiled fondly. "That sounds exactly like Dedalus Diggle. I remember that top hat."

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed in all green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look. **

"Well, they are obviously apparating away, duh," Sirius said. They looked at him strangely. He shrugged his shoulders and looked at the wall.

** At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

Harry swore that he had heard Ginny growl.

"That's the end of the chapter," Harry said, passing the book to Ginny.

A/N: Thanks guys for all of your support! I 3 you guys!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I, Sasha, hereby proclaim that chapter three of this story is open for reading! Any and all characters in this story were created by J.K. Rowling, the Queen. She has also created any words that are bold. Enjoy!

After Harry handed the book to Ginny there was a knock on the door. A blond girl skipped into the room followed by a blond boy who was pulling a greasy-haired Severus Snape behind him. James and Sirius were immediately on their feet with their wands out. Harry sighed and summoned their wands.

"HEY!" they screamed.

"Padfoot, Dad, I would like you to meet my friend Luna Lovegood, my co-worker Draco Malfoy, and I suppose you know who Severus is." Draco nodded at everyone while Luna waved happily. Severus sat in a chair and looked at Harry.

"I got your note. Are we going to continue reading?" Harry gestured for Ginny to begin reading.

**Letters From No One**

"What? How can there be letters from no one?" Sirius questioned.

"Obviously, Black, they are letters from Hogwarts," Severus drawled. Sirius glared at him and reached for his wand. Then, he remembered that Harry had his wand and settled for growling at Snape.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment.**

Lily growled.

**By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote controlled airplane, and, first time out on his new racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed the street on her crutches.**

"Potter," Draco said, "when is Dudley's birthday?" Harry shrugged.

"Sometime in early April I suppose," he said. Everyone shuddered at the thought of staying in a dark cupboard for three months.

** Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcom, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and the stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Yes, because that makes a lot of sense," Alice said, glaring at the book.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting.**

Ginny ground her teeth together.

** This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope.**

Sirius snorted, "You have no idea Harry, no idea." He patted the book.

"Sirius," Harry said, "you do realize that I'm right here?"

"No, not you, I was talking to the younger you."

"That's a book, it can't hear you." Sirius nodded.

**When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley.**

"While that is probably a very happy thought, you aren't going to secondary school!" Remus exclaimed.

**Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings.**

"Smeltings! What kind of name for a school is that!" Neville said.

"Well, you can't exactly be talking, you go to a school called Hogwarts," Draco pointed out.

"And so do you smarty," Ginny said, sticking her tongue out at him.

**Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley though this was very funny.**

** "They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

** "No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it – it might be sick."**

Almost everyone was rolling on the floor laughing, except Severus, although he, too, let out a smirk.

"I see you got your mother's wit, Harry," Remus said, patting Harry on the back.

"Hey!" James yelled, "how do you know he didn't get my wit?"

"Because, Prongsie old pal, you don't have a witty bone in your body!" Sirius told him, causing everyone to collapse into laughter again. James sat back and grumbled under his breath.

**Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"I don't think you need to worry there, Harry," Luna said.

** One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

Sirius and Ron look astounded that someone wouldn't eat cake immediately after they bought it.

** That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters.**

"Ew," Alice said, imagining a whale dressed in maroon and orange. It wasn't a pretty sight.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other when the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

The room at large looked appalled. "How on earth is that good training?" Hermione asked.

** As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up.**

"Handsome? My big toe is more handsome than Dudley," Remus said. Sirius scoffed.

"Snape's hair is more handsome than Dudley."

"Really, Black, really?" Snape sneered.

**Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

"I know what you mean," James told Harry, rubbing his side.

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

"Ew," Ginny commented.

** "What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

** "Your new school uniform," she said.**

** Harry looked in the bowl again.**

** "Oh," he said," I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

Sirius snorted and Remus grinned. James chuckled and Lily told her son, "She isn't going to like that. It was a joke and she doesn't have a humorous bone in her body."

** "Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"Yeah, right!" Alice said.

"That is horrible. She is thinking about sending you to some public school where you could get hurt. She isn't even going to buy you a new uniform!" Frank pointed out. Lily and James nodded in agreement.

** Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High – like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

"Yeah," Ron said, "that would not have been pretty."

"Thanks, mate," Harry said, looking over at him. Ron shrugged.

"No problem."

** Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. **

** They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat. **

** "Get the mail, Dudley," said –,"**

"WOAH MAN, WOAH," Sirius and James shouted.

"This is-," James started.

"History in-," Sirius interrupted.

"The making-," James put in.

"He's making Dudley-," Sirius said.

"Do something!" they both finished. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Draco and Neville stared at them.

"They're almost as bad as the twins!" Ron exclaimed.

"Don't interrupt!" Ginny scolded after she got over her momentary shock. "At least wait until I'm done with the sentence!"

"**said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

** "Make Harry get it."**

"I knew it was too good to be true," James sighed.

** "Get the mail, Harry."**

** "Make Dudley get it."**

** "Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

** Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and – **_**a letter for Harry**_**.**

"That's not how I got my letter, Harry," Hermione said, looking confused.

"I didn't get mine like that either. Someone from Hogwarts came to my house and explained it to me," Lily said. Hermione nodded to show her agreement.

Harry sighed, "Yeah, well, when has my life been normal." The people from the future agreed with him. The people from the past stared at him in wonderment, thinking of what he could have possibly gotten into.

** Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives – he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. **

Ginny, Lily, Hermione, and Alice all had tears in their eyes after that statement. Harry rolled his eyes. If this was how they were going to get at any mention of his life, they were going to be in for a heck of a week.

**Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs**_

_**4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging **_

_**Surrey**_

**The envelope was think and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

** Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter **_**H**_**.**

"Finally, it's Hogwarts time!" the Marauders said with glee.

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"Oh yes, he is quite hilarious, isn't he?" Severus said. Lily looked disgusted and the Marauders were making gagging noises.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

"Honestly, Harry!" Hermione sighed.

"What?" Ron asked.

"Harry has no common sense," she told him. Harry held up his hands.

"Hey, I was like what? Ten, plus I was so amazed that I had gotten a letter that I wasn't thinking straight." Hermione huffed and Ron still looked confused.

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk. -."**

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

Everyone in the room looked furious and if you listened closely, you could hear Remus, Lily, and Ginny muttering about tearing Dudley apart limb from limb.

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

Remus growled.

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

"Can you get any more dramatic than that?" Alice asked.

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

"Apparently he can," Neville told his mum.

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"**

"She's as bad as he is!" Draco exclaimed.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"Brat," Ron snarled.

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

"_**I**_** want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's **_**mine.**_**"**

"You tell them Harry!" Sirius shouted in Remus' ear. Remus punched him in the stomach as he clutched said ear.

"Shut up," he hissed.

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Harry didn't move.**

"**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

"I did want it really badly," Harry commented.

**"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole;- **

"GET HIM, HARRY!" James and Sirius shouted, only to get punched by Remus again.

**-Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"Dang it," the two boys whispered.

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

**"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"Yeah, right," Lily snorted. "If someone was really watching the house, they would have said something about how you treat your nephew, you overgrown whale!"

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything...**

"Because that one works every time!" Alice said sarcastically.

**"But -"**

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

"Fools," Severus spat, "You already have a wizard in your house. It isn't possible to 'stamp out that dangerous nonsense'!"

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"He fit?" Ginny asked, incredulously. Harry shook his head.

"No, his backside was hanging out of the door."

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"**

**"No one. it was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly.**

**"I have burned it."**

"You have no right to do that!" Lily fumed. "Harry may lack common sense at times, but he is _not_ stupid!"

"Thanks, Mum," Harry said. She smiled at him.

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

**"Er - yes, Harry - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

"HE HAD TWO BEDROOMS!" Lily shouted. James almost blasted a hole in the wall. "HE HAD TWO BEDROOMS AND THEY MADE YOU SLEEP IN A CUPBOARD!"

"They also had a guest room," Harry muttered quietly, but Lily heard him. She walked into a corner and threw glass plates at the wall for five minutes until she was calm enough to listen again.

**"Why?" said Harry.**

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now." **

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken.**

"Ungrateful lump," Frank muttered.

**The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"I doubt he even knew how to read," muttered Harry.

** From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't **_**want**_** him in there . . . I **_**need**_** that room . . . make him get out. . . ."**

Ron snorted

** Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

Lily sighed, "I can't decide if I want to fuss at you for wanting to be back in that horrid cupboard or agree with you about wanting that letter." Harry laughed at her.

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

"Aw, the poor tortoise!" Ginny pouted. Harry sweetly kissed her on the head to comfort her.

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall.**

"See, even you agree with me that sometimes you lack common sense!" Hermione exclaimed, smacking Harry on the shoulder. He shrugged.

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

** When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.**

"Whoa, stop the presses, Dudley has done something," James and Sirius shouted while high-fiving each other.

**They heard him banging thins with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, Privet Drive –'"**

Most everyone was shouting things like, "Hush you great prat!" or "STOP BEING ANNOYING!" Snape simply looked amused and Draco shook his head at the stupidity of the whale.

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.**

"You know, Harry, maybe your uncle made Dudley get the mail so that you wouldn't be able to get the next letter," Luna pointed out in her dream-like voice. Harry put a hand on his chin.

"I never thought of it that way, Luna. Maybe you're right!" Luna nodded happily and continued staring at her shoe.

**After a minute of confused fighting, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

"Dang," James muttered as he handed Remus two galleons, "You let me down, Harry. I had two galleons on you coming out with the letter.

"Yeah," Sirius said as he also handed Remus money, "although I was betting on Dudley." Harry shook his head in amusement as his father and godfather started arguing again.

** "Go to your cupboard – I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley – go – just go."**

** Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter.**

"I don't think that's how it works," Lily sighed. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"I read in _Hogwarts: A History_ that they have a quill dictate the letters that are sent out."

**Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

"Well, at least now we know he won't get his letter," Ron said. Harry looked at him, affronted. "Let's face it, Harry, your plans never do work out all that well." Harry snorted.

"Yeah, Ron, because all of your plans are fail proof." Before Ron could say anything, Hermione put her hand over his mouth.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

** He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door—**

** "AAAAARRRGH!"**

"Well, dang," Sirius said.

"You should have known he was there, Harry, I can assume that you would be able to see the Nargles flying around his head. They are visible even in the dark." They looked at Luna strangely, which she didn't seem to notice.

"You're right, Luna, I suppose I should have," Harry chuckled.

** Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat – something **_**alive**_**!**

** Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

"Good, that prat needed to be stepped on!" Lily spat vehemently. Sirius gasped.

"Lily, language!" She glared at him.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap.**

"That right - ," before James could even finish the sentence, Lily had smacked him across the back of the head.

**Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

""They should use red ink instead," Ron commented.

** "I want –" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letter into pieces right before his eyes.**

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed home and nailed up the mail slot.**

"Right," Draco snorted," because that is going to stop the letters from coming."

** "See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, **("I hope they get stuck in his tongue," Sirius growled) **"if they can't **_**deliver**_** them they'll just give up."**

** "I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

"At least she has some sense, admittedly not much, but some," Remus pointed out to Lily.

** "Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're mot like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

Alice snorted. "How clever of him," Snape said sarcastically, earning a surprised look from Ron, who didn't think Snape had a sense of humor.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom. **

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"He's almost as bad as Moody," Hermione laughed.

"Mad Eye Moody?" James asked.

"The very same."

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the22house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window.**

"They're sure making an effort to get the letters to you," Ginny said, "but no comes to see if you got them."

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor. **

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy. **

**"No post on Sundays, "he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today –"**

"He's insane," Neville laughed.

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one.**

"Why didn't you just pick one up off the floor?" Frank asked. Harry blushed and looked at the floor, mumbling something about not thinking.

**"Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor. **

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue.**

"Oh, come on Harry, you could have takin' him!" Sirius exclaimed. Harry snorted.

"I can barely beat Ginny in a fight, how could I have beaten Uncle Vernon, but then again, Ginny can beat Ron, too"

"Hey!"

"Sorry, mate, but it's true."

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

"He actually hit Dudley!" Alice said, her eyes wide.

"Yeah, it surprised me, too. I thought Aunt Petunia was going to cry along with Dudley, actually," Harry said, shivering to think of riding in a car with two of the three Dursleys crying.

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. **

**"Shake ' em off. . . Shake ' em off, "he would mutter whenever he did this.**

"Right, because any wizard following you, although there are none, would be thrown off track by you driving in circles and stopping at random places," Remus snapped.

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"What's a computer?" most of the pureblood wizards or witches in the room asked.

"It's not really that important," Lily, Hermione, Remus, and Harry answered.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering . . . **

"At least you got your own bed," Ginny said, patting Harry's knee.

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. **

"That's not breakfast!" Ron and Sirius shouted, outraged that someone could call that a meal.

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. **

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

"Because sending a hundred of the same letter to one hotel won't make anyone suspicious," Alice said dryly.

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared. **

"She is either scared of how Vernon is acting, or scared of how fat Dudley is," Sirius stated.

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room. **

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. **

"Good try, Petunia, good try, but it'll never work," Frank said sadly.

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage. **

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. **

"Yes, yes he has," James sighed.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. **

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled. **

"How do you snivel?" Sirius asked. He was then smacked on the back of the head by Lily.

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a tele**_**vision**_**." **

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. **

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY!" Sirius screamed.

"Not yet, Sirius! Not yet!" Alice yelled at him.

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. **

Hermione, Lily, and Ginny once again looked horrified.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day. **

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought. **

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

"He sounds too happy for my liking," Lily shuddered.

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there. **

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

"How nice of him," Snape sneered.

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them. **

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. **

"I imagine that if he actually had fallen, the rock would have cracked in half," Draco commented.

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. **

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. **

Sirius and Ron were horrified.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.**

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully. **

"Ha, ha, he is so hilarious," Ginny drawled.

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all. **

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket. **

"THEY MADE YOU SLEEP ON THE GROUND!" Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus shouted. Harry smiled slightly at them.

"Yeah, it was better than the cupboard though, wasn't as cramped."

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. **

"HAPPY – " Sirius was cut off by Remus, who put a hand over is mouth.

**He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now. **

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow. Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds . . . twenty . . . ten . . . nine - maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him – **

"You should," Ron smirked.

**Three . . . two . . . one . . . **

**BOOM. **

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door.**** Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

Sirius looked at Remus questioningly. Remus sighed and removed his hand from Sirius' mouth.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY!" everyone shouted. He grinned at them.

"NOW TELL US WHO'S AT THE DOOR!" Sirius screamed.

"YOU HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT CHAPTER!" Harry answered at the same level of volume. He handed the book to Neville, who opened the book and began to read.

A/N: But you guys have to wait until the next chapter to hear Neville read! I love those couple of people who reviewed and the ones who didn't! I hope you enjoy my story and don't get mad at me for not posting please! I am one of the laziest people on the planet! I love you guys!

3 – Sasha!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, do you think that I would be sitting here, typing this message to you? No, I think not!

Hello again everyone! I'm glad to be back! Silver Moon 1993, Snape is in the same year as Lily and the Marauders! STOP… STORY TIME!

Neville opened the book and began to read.

**Chapter 4: Keeper of the Keys**

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. **

**"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly. **

"There is no cannon, you imbecile!" Snape scoffed.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them. **

"Pfffftttt," Remus scoffed, "you can't kill Hagrid with a rifle."

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause. Then –**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor. A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. **

"Whoo! Go Hagrid!" the Marauders, Lily, Alice, and Frank cheered. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione laughed and Harry smiled. Snape just sneered and Draco sat silently. Luna twirled a strand of hair around her finger and looked around absently.

**His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair. The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all. **

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey . . . ."**

Lily laughed, "Same old Hagrid, huh!"

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. **

**"Budge up, yeh great lump, " said the stranger. **

"You tell him, Hagrid," Ron exclaimed.

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon. **

"I bet that even Vernon couldn't hide Dudley," Draco laughed.

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant. **

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile. **

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot **

"Aw," the girls in the room cooed. Harry rolled his eyes.

"If I had a galleon for every time I heard someone say that, I would be at least twice as rich as I am now!"

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise. **

"**I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune, " said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room. **

Everyone laughed at the way Hagrid treated Vernon, and rightly so for most everyone would have done the exact same thing (if they had the strength of Hagrid.)

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. **

"He's much to large to be like a mouse in any way," Ginny pointed out, wrinkling her nose at the thought.

**"Anyway— Harry, " said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right. "**

"And you ate something that Hagrid made!" Remus said, raising and eyebrow.

"Yep, first and last time, might I add. Although, his tea is very good."

** From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with **_**Happy Birthday Harry**_** written on it in green icing. **

"Aw," Lily cooed, "That's so sweet!" Harry looked a tad embarrassed.

"DON"T EAT IT HARRY!" the Marauders screamed.

"Why not?" Draco asked, looking confused.

"One should never, ever, eat Hagrids cooking," Ron said wisely.

"The cake was pretty good though," Harry said.

** Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"That's not very polite, Harry," Lily, Ginny, and Hermione scolded.

**The giant chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm. **

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind. "**

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath. **

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. **

"Ah, Hagrid," Neville chuckled. Alice smiled at her son.

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly. **

**"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

"WHOO! You tell him, Hagrid!" Sirius shouted, pumping his fist.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are. "**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. **

**"Call me Hagrid, " he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o'course."**

"**Er - no, " said Harry. **

**Hagrid looked shocked. **

**"Sorry, " Harry said quickly. **

"You shouldn't be sorry," Ginny told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

**"**_**Sorry**_**?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry. **

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

"Aw, he's thinking about us," James said, placing a hand over his heart. Snape sneered at him.

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall. **

**"Do you mean ter tell me, " he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou'- about ANYTHING?"**

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad. **

**"I know some things, " he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff. "**

"That's not what he's talking about, Potter," Draco said.

"Yeah, I know that know!" Harry said angrily.

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About **_**our**_** world, I mean. **_**Your **_**world. **_**My**_** world. **_**Yer parents' world**_**. "**

**"What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. **

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed. **

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble. " Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. **

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad, " he said. "I mean, they're **_**famous.**_** You're **_**famous**_**. "**

"That could take some getting used to, when you get to Hogwarts," Remus said. Harry nodded.

"I'm still not used to it."

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

**"Yeh don' know... Yeh don' know... " Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare. **

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally. **

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice. **

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage. **

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept **_**what**_** from me?" said Harry eagerly. **

"Just tell him already!" Sirius yelled impatiently.

"Don't wet yourself in your excitement, Black," Snape told him. Sirius opened his mouth to retort, but someone spoke up first.

"He can't help it, the Nargles are getting to him," Luna said.

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror. **

"Forbid him my a—." Lily was cut off when James put a hand over her mouth.

"Lily! Language!" James said in a very good impression of her. The look she gave him after that made him flinch and pull his hand back, causing everyone else to laugh.

**"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh, " said Hagrid. "Harry – yer a wizard. "**

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard. **

**"I'm a what?" gasped Harry. **

"'I'm a what?'" Ron mocked, "Honestly, Harry, that was your reaction!"

**"A wizard, o' course, " said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh**

**be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"YAY! LETTER-TIME!" Sirius screamed.

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore **

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr. Potter, **

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. **

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. **

**Yours sincerely, **

**Minerva McGonagall, **

_**Deputy Headmistress**_

"WHOO! MINNIE!" James and Sirius yelled.

"Hush," Frank and Alice yelled.

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me, " said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl**

"Poor owl!" Ginny said.

**- a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well. **

**Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone. **

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly. **

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight. **

**"He's not going, " he said. **

"Like hell he's not!" Lily and James said.

**Hagrid grunted. **

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him, " he said.**

"**A what?" said Harry, interested.**

"**A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. AN' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"**We swore whe we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

"**You **_**knew**_**?" said Harry. "You **_**knew**_** I'm a—a wizard?"**

"**Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "**_**Knew**_**! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that— that **_**school**_**— and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats I was the only one who saw her for what she was— a freak! But for my mother and father, on no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

A single tear rolled down Lily's cheek at the mean words her sister had said.

Snape patted her arm as he knew exactly what Petunia was like.

"Did you really take home frog spawn?" Ron asked.

"No, but they allow us do show our families one spell if we're muggleborn. I turned a teacup into a rat."

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"**Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as— as— **_**abnormal—**_** and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

"How can someone be so vile?" Hermione spat, absolutely disgusted.

"She's been worse than that also," Harry said.

"I'm not surprised, she's always been terrible," Snape said.

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

"Know that's just horrible!" Hermione screeched.

"**CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"**

"**But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

Ginny wrapped her arms around Harry's waist.

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

"**I never expected this, he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble getting' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh— but someone's gotta— yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys. **

"Beat the up Hagrid!" Sirius and Ron yelled before looking at each other.

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it. . . . "**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with— with a person called— but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows—"**

**"Who?"**

**"Well— I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," Luna quoted.

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went . . . bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was . . ."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. **

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested. **

**"Nah— can't spell it. All right— **_**Voldemort**_**. " Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. **

"I can't believe that even Hagrid is afraid of him!"

**Anyway, this— this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too— some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches . . . terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him**

"YEAH WE DID!" The Marauders and Lily cheered. Harry and Ron snickered, causing them to get slapped by their girlfriends.

**an' he killed 'em. Horribly.**

"Well, there goes my future," Sirius said, trying to lighten the mood.

**One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before . . . probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

"Plus we would never join him anyway!" James yelled, throwing a dark glance at Snape when Lily wasn't looking.

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em . . . maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where**

**you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an'— an'—"**

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn. **

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad— knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find— anyway . . ."**

"I'm glad somebody misses us!" Lily said.

"Please," Remus said, "All of us would miss you." He gestured to himself, Sirius, Alice, and Frank.

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then— an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing— he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? **

"And so you became the first person to ever survive a killing curse," Draco said.

"Twice," Harry whispered to Ginny.

**That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh— took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even— but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age— the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts— an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before— and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. **

"Oh my Merlin," Lily gasped, putting a hand over her mouth.

"You remembered him laughing!" Hermione gasped. Harry nodded sadly.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly. **

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot . . ."**

You shouldn't have!" Frank said.

**"Load of old tosh, " said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched. **

**"Now, you listen here, boy, " he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured— **

"Don't touch my son!" Lily yelled at the book.

**and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion— asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types— just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end—"**

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley— I'm warning you— one more word . . ."**

"Kill him, Hagrid!" Sirius shouted. Ron grinned.

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. **

**"That's better, " said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor. **

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them. **

**"But what happened to Vol— sorry— I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

"You should say his name," Luna said.

"Don't worry, I do," Harry told her.

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see . . . he was gettin' more an' more powerful— why'd he go?**

"**Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. **

"Ain't that the truth," Ron muttered.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on— **_**I**_** dunno what it was, no one does— but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

"Maybe because you didn't know that you were a wizard," Snape commented.

**"Hagrid, " he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. **

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it . . . every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry . . . chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach . . . dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back . . . and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"Yes, you did, and it was bloody amazing!" Ron shouted at the same time as Sirius.

"You guys are exactly alike," Remus laughed at the same time as Hermione.

"So are you two!" Harry and James said.

"Can we stop this now?" Lily and Ginny asked.

"Ok, really?" Frank and Neville laughed.

"This is getting annoying," Luna and Alice said.

"It's pathetic," Malfoy and Snape sneered.

"OK, NO MORE!" Sirius shouted.

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him. **

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard— you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts.**

"To famous," Harry moaned.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight. **

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish— spell books and wands and—"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. **

"Yea he is!" Alice shouted.

**His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled—"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon. **

"Goodbye, Vermin," Sirius said.

"Why goodbye?" Neville asked.

"Hagrid is seriously loyal to Dumbledore," Remus told him.

"OH!" James and Sirius shouted, giving each other a high-five.

"Not that again," Remus groaned.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER—, " he thundered, "— INSULT—ALBUS—DUMBLEDORE—IN—FRONT—OF—ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley— there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers. **

Everyone laughed.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them. **

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. **

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper, " he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

"You got that right, Hagrid!" Ron and Hermione laughed.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows. **

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts, " he said. "I'm— er— not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - oneo' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job—"**

"**Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry. **

**"Oh, well— I was at Hogwarts meself but I— er— got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

**"Why were you expelled?"**

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow, " said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

"Does anybody actually know why Hagrid got expelled?" Draco asked.

The Golden Trio nodded.

"Why?" Lily asked. They metaphorically zipped their lips.

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry. **

"**You can kip under that, " he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"And that's the end of the chapter," Neville said. He held the book out for somebody to take.

"Oh, can I read next?" Lily asked.

"Sure." Lily opened the book and began to read.

YAY! ANOTHER CHAPTER! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH! YAY! I LIKE REVIEWS!

_Love,_

_Sasha!_


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: 

"Whew, that was some practice," I said as I opened the door to my home and walked in.

"Sasha, your home! Quick, we need an original disclaimer for the next chapter of your story!" my husband Dale cried. I started to panic, but someone knocked on the door first.

"James! You're here!" I yelled as I flung open the door and pulled James Sirius Potter into the room.

"Hey, I just came to tell Dale something," he started.

"Not now, now you are going to read this to my avid readers," I told him as I handed him an index card.

"Sasha Gray does not own Harry Potter. All letters written in bold belong to the Queen, as do I and all the characters."

"Yay! Thanks. All you readers out there, pop open a butterbeer and enjoy the story!"

"This is chapter 5, **Diagon Alley**," Lily said.

"YAY! FINALLY, THE WIZARDING WORLD!" Ron cheered.

"NO MORE STUPID MUGGLES!" added Sirius.

** Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

** "It was a dream," he told himself firmly. **

"You really are a pessimist, Potter," Draco told him.

"Sometimes, but most of the time, I'm a realist."

"**I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard.**

** There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

_**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door**_**, Harry thought, his heart sinking.**

"That mist have been really depressing to think that," Alice commented.

"I think worse later," Harry shrugged. Ginny slapped him.

"OW, what was that for?"

"I hate your stupid self-depressing moods!" she told him. He sighed.

**But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

"It wasn't a dream, stop letting those Nargles get in your head," Luna told him sternly.

"I try my best."

** Tap. Tap. Tap.**

** "All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

** He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claws on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

** Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him. He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

"I hate those stupid Prophet owls," Snape muttered.

** "Don't do that."**

** Hagrid tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

** "Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl—"**

** "Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

** "What?"**

** "He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

** Hagrids coat seemed to be made of nothing **_**but**_** pockets— bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags . . . finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

"They aren't that strange looking," Ron said.

"Yes, they are, Ron," Hermione told him.

** "Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

** "Knuts?"**

** "The little bronze ones."**

** Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window.**

** Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.**

** "Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

"And be attacked by fans wanting hand shakes, yay!" Harry cheered sarcastically.

** Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the harry balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"There you go again," Ginny sighed.

"**Um— Hagrid?"**

** "Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

** I haven't got any money— and you heard Uncle Vernon last night . . . he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

** "Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching is head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

** "But if their house was destroyed—"**

"Why on earth would we keep money in our house?" James asked.

Harry shrugged, "I didn't know that wizards had a bank."

** "They didn't keep their gold on the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold— an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit p' yer birthday cake, neither."**

** "Wizard have**_** banks**_**?"**

** "Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

"I hate those little buggers sometimes," Sirius said.

"You have no idea," the trio muttered.

** Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.**

** "**_**Goblins?"**_

** "Yeah— so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe— 'cept maybe Hogwarts. **

"Because nobody's ever broken into Gringotts," Sirius said.

**As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you— gettin' things from Gringotts— knows he can trust me, see.**

"Fetching _you_ is important Hogwarts business?" Ginny said, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Oh, shush," Harry laughed.

** "Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

** Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

** "How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.**

"**Flew," said Hagrid.**

"Flew?" James said incredulously.

"_**Flew**_**?"**

Everyone laughed as James and Harry blushed.

"**Yeah— but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

"Wait, how do the Dursleys get back home?" Lily asked.

"Um, they had to flag down a police boat," Harry laughed, "The police weren't very happy with them about 'sinking their boat.'" Everyone laughed with him.

"**Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter—er— speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

"**Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

"Oh, Hagrid," Hermione sighed.

"**Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked. **

"**Spells— enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons gaurdin' the high security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way— Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

"I wonder if he's thought about actually robbing it," Alice said.

"Of course he has, everyone has," James exclaimed.

"Well, I don't think it would actually be that hard," Harry said.

"A galleon that Harry ends up robbing Gringotts," Sirius whispered in Remus' ear.

"You're on," he whispered back.

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the**_** Daily Prophet**_**. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.**

"**Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

"Some things never change," Frank commented.

"**There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

" '**Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

"The bloody idiot," Neville scoffed, "can't do anything for himself, can he?"

"**But what does a Ministry of Magic **_**do**_**?"**

"**Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

"**Why?"**

"_**Why?**_** Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

"That's a good point," Luna said.

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

**Passerby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

"Way to blend in, Hagrid," Sirius laughed.

"**Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are **_**dragons**_** at Gringotts?"**

"**Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

"I don't really like dragons that much," Harry said.

"Why not," James asked, "I think it would be brilliant to have a dragon."

"They aren't as sweet looking up close, I've heard." The kids from the future snickered under their breath.

"**You'd **_**like **_**one?"**

"**Wanted one ever since I was a kid— here we go."**

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.**

"It really isn't that hard," Hermione sighed, "I mean, really, they have numbers on them."

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid, took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent. **

"Only Hagrid," Snape said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.

"**Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stiches.**

**Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

"**Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL**_

_**of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**_

**UNIFORM**

**First-year students will require:**

**Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

**One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

**One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**

**One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**

**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

**COURSE BOOKS**

**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

_**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)**_

__** by Miranda Goshawk**

_**A History of Magic**_** by Bathilda Bagshot**

_** Magical Theory**_** by Adalbert Waffling**

_** A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration**_** by Emeric Switch**

_** One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi**_

** by Phyllida Spore**

_**Magical Drafts and Potions**_** by Arsenius Jigger**

_** Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them**_

__** by Newt Scamander**

_**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection**_

** by Quentin Trimble**

** OTHER EQUIPMENT**

** 1 wand**

** 1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**

** 1 set glass or crystal phials**

** 1 telescope**

** 1 set brass scales**

** Students may also bring an owl OR cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**

"**Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

"Of course you can, if you know where to go," Remus told the book.

** "If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

Remus blushed.

**Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the sets were too small and the trains too slow.**

** "I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

"They just don't know any different," Lily said.

** Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up? **

"As if they could— " Harry cut him off, holding up a finger.

**If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even thought everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

"Well, that explains that then," Sirius said, as he laced his finger together behind his head and leaned back.

** "This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

** It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. **

"You have really good senses, Harry," James said.

**Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

** For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. **

"Here we go again," Ron said.

**Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

** "Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.**

"He's showing you off," Hermione laughed.

** "Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this— can this be—?"**

** The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

** "Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter . . . what an honor."**

"It must be terrible, everyone knowing what you did, but you yourself not knowing," Draco commented. Harry nodded his head in agreement.

** He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

** "Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."**

** Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.**

** Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

"Oh Merlin," Neville sighed.

** "Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

** "So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

** "Always wanted to shake your hand— I'm all of a flutter."**

** "Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

** "I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

** "He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!" **

"Got to love Diggle," Remus said as he bit the head off a chocolate frog.

** Harry shook hands again and again— Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

"Oh," Sirius laughed, wiggling his eyebrows. Harry slapped his arm, which made him laugh harder.

** A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

** "Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Qurirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

** "P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."**

"Ugh, the return of the t-t-terrible stutter," Draco groaned causing them to laugh.

** "What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

** "D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather ****as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought. **

"This is the person that is teaching you Defense!" Lily asked, completely astounded.

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble. **

**"Must get on— lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. **

**Hagrid grinned at Harry. **

**"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh— mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

**"Is he always that nervous?"**

"Yes, he is," Harry answered his own question.

**"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience. . . . They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag— never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject— now, where's me umbrella?"**

"I think I know what's in the umbrella," James said.

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can. **

**"Three up . . . two across . . ." he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry."**

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered— it wriggled— in the middle, a small hole appeared— it grew wider and wider— a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. **

**"Welcome, " said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

"This was one of my favorite parts about finding out I was a witch," Hermione sighed wistfully.

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall. **

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons— All Sizes— Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver— Self-Stirring— Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them. **

**"Yeah, you'll be needin' one, " said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragonliver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad. . . ."**

"I bet that was Mum," Ginny laughed.

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium— Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand— fastest ever—" **

James sighed and got a dreamy look on his face.

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon. . . .**

**"Gringotts, " said Hagrid. **

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. **

"I love your descriptions, Harry," Luna said.

**Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was—**

**"Yeah, that's a goblin, " said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

_**Enter, stranger, but take heed**_

_**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**_

_**For those who take, but do not earn,**_

_**Must pay most dearly in their turn. **_

_**So if you seek beneath our floors**_

_**A treasure that was never yours, **_

_**Thief, you have been warned, beware**_

_**of finding more than treasure there. **_

"I've always loved that poem," Alice said.

**"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, " said Hagrid. **

** A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter. **

**"Morning, " said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

**"You have his key, Sir?"**

**"Got it here somewhere, " said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose.**

James burst out laughing. "One time, I went to Gringotts with Sirius and when he was searching for his vault key, he pulled a dog biscuit out of his pocket and ate it. The goblin looked disgusted!" Everyone started laughing with him while Sirius just pouted and said, "Why is that funny? They're good!"

**Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals. **

**"Got it, " said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely. **

**"That seems to be in order."**

"It's not like you can tell if it's a key for a different vault! It's just the trust vault!"

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore, " said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

"Because saying that won't make Harry curious at all," Neville laughed.

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

**"Very well, " he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have Someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

Ron muttered something to Harry, who nodded and grimaced.

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall. **

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked. **

**"Can't tell yeh that, " said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

"And this helps the situation how?" Lily asked.

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in— Hagrid with some difficulty— and were off. **

"I love the Gringotts carts!" James said with Harry nodding in agreement.

"I hate them," Hermione said, looking like she was going to puke just thinking about it.

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. **

"You have a good memory, Potter," Draco said, looking surprised.

**The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering. **

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late— they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

"It was a dragon," Hermione muttered.

"**I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it, " said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling. **

"Hermione does that, too!" Ron laughed.

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts. **

Ron looked a tad jealous, but shook it off.

**"All yours, " smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's— it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. **

Insert growl from Lily, James and pretty much everyone else, here.

**How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London. **

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.**

**"The gold ones are Galleons, " he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

**"One speed only," said Griphook.**

"I think they're lying about that," Sirius said, "They just like to see people puke."

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck. **

"Good," Lily said firmly.

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole. **

**"Stand back, " said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away. **

**"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook. **

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked. **

**"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin. **

"See! Evil!" Sirius shouted, standing up and pointing at the book.

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least— but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

"You keep your mouth shut?" Malfoy said, looking surprised.

"Shut up, you prat!" Harry said, sticking his tongue out at him.

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid. **

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life— more money than even Dudley had ever had. **

"Yea, just never tell the Dursleys about the money, Harry," Lily warned him.

**"Might as well get yer uniform, " said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve. **

**"Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here— another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."**

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length. **

Draco sighed and put his head in his hands, knowing this wouldn't end well.

**"Hello, " said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"**

**"Yes," said Harry.**

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands, " said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to took at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

The Marauders growled, already not liking the younger Malfoy.

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

**"Have **_**you**_** got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

**"No, " said Harry. **

**"Play Quidditch at all?"**

**"No, " Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

Neville, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny burst out laughing. They got confused glances from the people from the past.

"Sorry, don't mind them, they are just laughing about how much I hate Quidditch," Harry told them. This caused them to laugh harder.

**"I do— Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

**"No, " said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute. **

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been— imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" **

"There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff," Sirius said, thinking about her cousins husband, Ted.

**"Mmm, " said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in. **

**"That's Hagrid, " said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh, " said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

"He isn't a servant!" pretty much everyone but Snape and Malfoy yelled.

**"He's the gamekeeper, " said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of **_**savage**_**— lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

Remus turned to Sirius and James, who blushed.

"That was us, we were just playing around!"

**"I think he's brilliant, " said Harry coldly. **

**"**_**Do**_** you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

**"They're dead, " said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy. **

"Sorry," Draco told Harry who waved it off.

**"Oh, sorry, " said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were **_**our**_** kind, weren't they?"**

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

"The best in our year!" Remus said.

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool. **

**"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy. Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

**"What's up?" said Hagrid. **

**"Nothing, " Harry lied. **

"That should be your catch phrase," Ron laughed.

"That and 'I'm fine!'" Hermione snickered. Harry shot them glares.

**They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said,"Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know— not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

"I still can't believe you hate Quidditch!" James spluttered.

"Oh yes, it's terrible, I prefer to study in my free time," Harry told him solemnly.

James fainted here.

**"Don't make me feel worse, " said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pate boy in Madam Malkin's. **

**"—and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."**

**"Yer not **_**from**_** a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh **_**were**_**— he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. **

"Yep, we knew your name since we could talk, and probably before that," Ginny said.

**You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in along line o' Muggles— look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

**"So what**_** is**_** Quidditch?"**

**"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like - like soccer in the Muggle world - everyone follows Quidditch -played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls— sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"It is not!" James yelled, sitting up from where he had fainted.

**"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

**"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but—"**

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily. **

"We'd love you even if you were in Hufflepuff," Lily told him. He grinned at her.

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."**

**"Vol-, sorry— You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

"Oh Merlin! Harry didn't say the name! The world is coming to an end!" Ron and Neville cried dramatically before fake-fainting.

"Ha ha, I'm laughing so hard," Harry said dryly.

**"Years an' years ago, " said Hagrid. They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from **_**Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More)**_** by Professor Vindictus Viridian. **

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

"He sounds like you, Sirius," Alice told him.

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop). **

"I hate potions," James muttered. Harry nodded.

"I love them! Potions is my favorite subject besides charms!" Lily exclaimed.

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again. **

**"Just yer wand left— oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

**Harry felt himself go red. **

**"You don't have to—"**

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but Harry cut her off.

"It was the first time I ever got a gift, leave it."

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at— an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

"I like toads," Frank said.

"Me too!" Neville told him.

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

Ginny laughed.

**"Don' mention it, " said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now— only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand . . . This was what Harry had been really looking forward to. **

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B. C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. **

"It's supposed to be Merlins wand," Luna told them dreamily.

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic. **

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was aloud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. **

"Ollivander gives me the creeps," Draco shivered.

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop. **

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly. **

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter. " It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

"He remembers me?" Lily said, surprised.

"He remembers everyone," Harry told her.

"Creepy," Sirius muttered.

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. **

Snape nodded in agreement.

**"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it— it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."**

"It's the best wand ever!" James said, looking at said wand lovingly.

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes. **

**"And that's where. . . ."**

**Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger. **

Harry shuddered at the description.

**"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it, " he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands . . . well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do. . . ."**

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid. **

**"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again. . . . Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

**"It was, sir, yes, " said Hagrid. **

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

"Uh oh, never brake a wandmakers wand," Sirius warned them all. Ron looked sheepish.

**"Er— yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though, " he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply. "Oh, no, sit, " said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke. **

"Told you!" James yelled.

**"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now— Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

**"Er— well, I'm right-handed," said Harry. **

**"Hold out your arm. That's it. " He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

"I only had to try five before I found mine," Alice said.

**"That will do, " he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor.**

**"Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."**

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

"Everyone feels foolish the first time they wave a wand, Harry," Hermione comforted him.

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try—"**

**Harry tried— but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander. **

**"No, no—here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become. **

"How many did you end up trying?" Remus asked.

"A little less than a hundred," Harry told them. They gaped at him, but he shrugged and gestured for Lily to keep reading.

**"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere— I wonder, now—yes, why not— unusual combination— holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

Harry put a hand on his wand and it warmed his hand.

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well . . . how curious . . . how very curious . . ."**

"What's curious?" James asked.

"Why is it curious?" Sirius chuckled.

"SHUT UP!" Lily screamed as James opened his mouth to say something else.

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious . . . curious . . ."**

"**Sorry, " said Harry, "but what's curious?"**

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare. **

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather— just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar."**

"DUN DUN DUN!" Ron and Neville shouted dramatically.

**Harry swallowed. "Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember. . . . I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter. . . . After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things— terrible, yes, but great."**

"They aren't great," Frank said.

"He just admires the power it took for Tom to do those things," Ginny told them.

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop. **

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. **

"Yeah, I imagine you would get some strange looks," Hermione laughed.

**Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. **

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said. **

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow. **

**"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

"I'd be quiet too if I was told my wand had a connection to Voldemorts," Snape said sarcastically.

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life— and yet— he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words. **

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander . . . but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry— I mean, the night my parents died."**

"Your famous because your parents died, that's why you hate it, it reminds you of them," Draco whispered. Harry nodded sadly.

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts— I did— still do, 'smatter of fact."**

"Hogwarts is the best," Lily sighed.

"Like a home," Harry muttered.

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope. **

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September— King's Cross— it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me. . . . See yeh soon, Harry."**

"He didn't tell you how to get to the platform though," James pointed out. Harry just grinned.

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"That's the end of the chapter," Lily said, closing the book. They heard a pop outside in the corridor and the door opened.

_In the corridor_

POP! Fred and George Weasley popped into existence.

"Fred!" cried George, running to his brother and giving him a hug before they went inside the room.

_Back in the room_

"Fred, George!" everyone from the future yelled and ran to give them hugs.

"We were just about to read the sixth chapter," Harry said.

"Can we get food first?" Sirius asked. "I'm starving."

"Alright," Harry sighed. He called for a house elf to bring them lunch.

After their stomachs were full, James picked up the book and began to read. . . .

Another chapter! YAY! PARTY! I LOVE EVERYONE! HAPPINESS AND RAINBOWS AND SUNSHINE TO YOU BRILLIANT READERS! (p.s. I like reviews, they make me happy! )

_Love,_

_Sasha_


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: "DALE, DALE, DALE!" I yelled as I skidded around the corner of the room. I ran straight into him and fell to the ground. "Ouch, that hurt, you git."

"Want me to kiss it, make it better?" I glared at him.

"No, you cheeky boy, I don't." He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"I need a disclaimer! I can't have everybody thinking that I own Harry Potter!"

"Just Floo Rachel and get her to say it."

"GOOD IDEA!"

"Do I get a reward?"

"No."

"Darn." I rolled my eyes and ran to the fireplace.

"J Potter," I called into the Floo and stuck my head in. When I blinked again, I was looking into a living room and there were two people sitting on the couch, snogging (**sorry Rachel **).

"MY EYES!" I shouted. They abruptly broke apart and turned to glare at me.

"What?" James growled.

"Rachel," I exclaimed, completely ignoring James, "I need a disclaimer. You know how important this is! Help me!"

"Sasha Grey does not own the Harry Potter universe or any of its characters. They belong to the Queen, J.K. Rowling."

"Thank you _so_ much! Go back to your snogging now." They rolled their eyes at me and I pulled my head out of the fire.

"Did she help any?" Dale asked as he sat on the couch.

"Yes. What were you looking at?" I asked suspiciously. 

"Nothing." I sat beside him and gave him a kiss.

"There's your reward for a good idea."

"That's it?"

"Yes. Enjoy the story my loving readers," I grinned before kissing Dale again.

"**The Journey From Platform Nine And Three-Quarters,"** James read.

"YAY! HOGWARTS TIME!" Sirius, Remus, Harry, and Ron cheered.

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun. **

"I'm sorry about my sister, Harry," Lily sighed.

"It's fine, Mum."

**True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him— in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.**

"Well, that's good," Neville said. Harry shook his head.

"It was kind of depressing."

**Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while. **

"See."

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in **_**A History of Magic**_**. His school books were very interesting. **

Hermione gaped at him.

"You actually read your books?" Harry shrugged.

"Yeah, I didn't have much else to do."

"Harry, do you hold back in class?" He looked shyly at the floor. Ginny smacked his arm.

"You should try your best at everything, Harry Potter!" she told him loudly. Harry could see Lily nodding over Ginny's head.

**He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.**

"That's a sign that she likes you," Hermione told him.

**Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.**

"I did that, too," everyone but Snape and Draco said

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He**

**cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.**

The Marauders, Ron, and Neville burst out laughing.

"Does he do that whenever he sees you now?" Alice asked.

"Not anymore, but he did for a while."

** "Er— Uncle Vernon?" **

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening. **

**"Er— I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to— to go to Hogwarts."**

**Uncle Vernon grunted again. **

**"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?" **

**Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes. **

"You speak Troll?" James asked.

"I suppose so," Harry said, "Do you?"

"Well, no, but I speak Sirius-in-the-morning so they're basically the same thing."

"OI!"

**"Thank you."**

**He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke. **

**"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

"No, they're illegal," Draco said.

**Harry didn't say anything. **

**"Where is this school, anyway?"**

"It's in Scotland," Remus told the book.

**"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket. **

**"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read.**

**His aunt and uncle stared. **

**"Platform what?"**

**"Nine and three-quarters."**

**"Don't talk rubbish, " said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."**

"Petunia will tell him, she's been there before," Lily said. Harry raised his eyebrows.

"She has?" Lily nodded.

**"It's on my ticket."**

**"Barking, " said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

**"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly. **

**"Taking Dudley to the hospital, " growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

"No, just make the fat lump go with it on," Snape sneered.

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes— he'd change on the train.**

"Good idea," Luna commented.

** He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off. **

"DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!"

"SIRIUS!"

"IT WAS TOO QUIET!"

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face. **

"Gross," Snape sneered.

"You do that a lot," Ginny told him.

"What?"

"You sneer a lot."

"It's probably because that is one of the only adjectives the author can think of for him," Luna told them. They gave her a "what on earth are you talking about" look, which she ignored.

**"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine — platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"**

**He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

"It's in the wall, Harry, duh," Ron said sarcastically.

**"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing. **

Lily said something foul and Harry turned to her with a questioning look.

"Petunia has been to the platform more than once, she could have told you where it was," Lily growled. Ginny hugged Harry and started mouthing bad words about Petunia.

**Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig.**

"Are you sure it wasn't because you were a short, little midget?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, with looks like Prongsie over here, most of those looks were at you, not Hedwig," Sirius laughed.

"OI!" shouted the two Potter men.

**He'd have to ask someone.**

**He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters. **

"You would get even weirder looks then," Neville said, knowledgably.

**The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose.**

"Don't comment, Ron," Harry said. Ron quickly shut his mouth.

**Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic. **

"Do you need a paper bag, Harry?" Hermione laughed. Harry grimaced at her while the others looked confused. "Muggle joke," she explained.

**According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.**

"Nope, nobody will notice you at all."

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten. **

"Great idea, Harry, you won't get transported to a mental facility or anything," Remus chuckled.

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying. **

**"— packed with Muggles, of course—"**

"Careless," Draco said.

"She likes to pick up the straggling muggleborns," Ginny told him.

"Is that Molly?" James asked. The two Weasleys nodded.

**Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him— and they had an **_**owl**_**. **

"Oh Merlin! An owl!" Sirius sang, jumping up and down.

"Shut up, Padfoot," James said as he hit Sirius upside the head.

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying. **

**"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother. **

**"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mom, can't I go . . ."**

"Aw, how cute," Hermione teased. Sirius pinched Ginny's cheeks. Seconds later he was screaming in pain as bogeys came out of his nose.

**"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."**

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts—" Harry and James chanted before getting their mouths covered by the two red head girls.

**What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it— but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished. **

"This was my favorite part of going to Hogwarts," Luna said dreamily.

**"Fred, you next," the plump woman said. **

**"I'm not Fred, I'm George, " said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you **_**tell**_** I'm George?"**

"Here we go again," Ron rolled his eyes.

**"Sorry, George, dear."**

**"Only joking, I am Fred, " said the boy, and off he went. **

"I think I'm going to like these twins," Sirius laughed.

**His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone— but how had he done it? **

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there— and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere. **

**There was nothing else for it. **

**"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.**

"Plump?" Ginny said, raising an eyebrow at Harry. He shrugged.

**"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."**

**She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose. **

"Well, that's flattering, thanks mate," Ron scowled at Harry, who just laughed.

**"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is— the thing is, I don't know how**

**to—"**

**"How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded. **

"Run straight at the solid, brick wall. Simple really."

"No, I had no idea."

**"Not to worry, " she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

"I'm so sorry that we weren't there," Lily told Harry and wrapped him in a hug. He smiled and hugged her back.

**"Er— okay, " said Harry. **

**He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.**

"It's a brick wall, Potter, of course it looks solid," Snape said. Harry glared at him.

**He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble— leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run— the barrier was coming nearer and nearer— he wouldn't be able to stop— the cart was out of control— he was a foot away— he closed his eyes ready for the crash.**

"You are such a pessimist," Frank laughed.

"Yes, we've said this before," Harry said.

**It didn't come . . . he kept on running . . . he opened his eyes. **

**A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words **_**Platform Nine and Three-Quarters**_** on it. He had done it. **

Everyone but Malfoy and Snape cheered.

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. **

**The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

Neville blushed and looked at the ground.

**"Oh, **_**Neville**_**," he heard the old woman sigh. **

"And we're sorry that _we_ weren't there for _you,_" Alice told Neville.

"It's okay, at least I can visit you guys sometimes," he said sadly.

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd. **

**"Give us a look, Lee, go on." **

"That can never be good."

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.**

"Spiders!" Ron shuddered. Hermione patted his shoulder.

**Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

"Don't worry, Prongs does that every time," Remus laughed. James glared at the werewolf.

**"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier. **

"Aw," Lily cooed.

"Whoa! They're helping someone!" Ginny said, with wide eyes.

"Voluntarily," Ron added.

**"Yes, please," Harry panted.**

**"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment. **

**"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.**

"Not a good idea, Potter," Draco grimaced.

**"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar. **

**"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you—"**

"**He**_** is**_**, " said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.**

**"What?" said Harry. **

**"**_**Harry Potter**_**," chorused the twins. "Oh, him, " said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."**

"Very smooth, Harry, very smooth," Neville laughed.

**The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red.**

"They were the first, but certainly not the last," Harry sighed.

**Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.**

**"Fred? George? Are you there?"**

**"Coming, Mom."**

**With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train. Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.**

"You were listening?" Ginny squeaked. Harry laughed and nodded.

**Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.**

**"Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

"Aw," Harry snickered.

"Shove off, Harry," Ron groaned.

**"**_**Mom**_**— geroff" He wriggled free. **

**"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins. **

The marauders laughed and Snape sniggered.

**"Shut up," said Ron. **

**"Where's Percy?" said their mother. **

**"He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter **_**P**_** on it. **

**"Can't****stay long, Mother, " he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves— "**

"Ugh, he sounds like Remus," James and Sirius groaned.

"Please, I never sound like that!"

"Sure you don't."

**"Oh, are you a **_**prefect**_**, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."**

**"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it, " said the other twin. "Once— "**

**"Or twice— "**

**"A minute— "**

**"All summer— "**

"GOOD ONE! I like these guys."

**"Oh, shut up, " said Percy the Prefect. **

**"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins. **

**"Because he's a **_**prefect**_**, " said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term— send me an owl when you get there."**

"Because he's a _prefect_!"

"What do you have against prefects?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing really, because Remus is one. We just have to joke about more people than just the Slytherins," Sirius explained.

"You guys tease everyone," Alice scoffed, "not just the snakes."

"Tis true."

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins. **

**"Now, you two— this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've— you've blown up a toilet or— "**

"Bad idea, Molly, bad idea."

"Never give pranksters ideas."

"Yeah, plus, that ones already been done." Sirius leaned back in his seat and looked smug.

**"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

**"Great idea though, thanks, Mom."**

**"It's **_**not funny**_**. And look after Ron."**

"It is funny, and they did a horrible job looking after you, Ron," Harry told him.

"They really did."

**"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

**"Shut up, " said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

"Do you have to notice everything?" Ron huffed.

"It's a gift," Harry laughed. "I'm just not looking forward to fifth year. Or sixth come to think of it."

**"Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"**

**Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.**

**"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"**

**"Who?"**

**"**_**Harry Potter**_**!"**

"OH MY GOSH HARRY POTTER!" Sirius got smacked across the back of the head.

"There were Poppyfrauds in your head. They are gone know so your voice won't be so high," Luna said.

**Harry heard the little girl's voice. **

**"Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him, Mom, oh please. . . ."**

"Don't laugh," said a blushing Ginny. As everyone chuckled at her past self.

"I thought it was cute," Harry whispered in here ear.

"Sure you did," Ginny scoffed. He chuckled and kissed her cheek.

**"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"**

**"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there— like lightning."**

"So who's the thunder?"

"Very funny, Alice."

"Thanks, I thought so."

**"Poor **_**dear**_**— no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."**

**"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"**

"Did he ever ask you that?" Ginny asked with a stern look.

"No, thanks Merlin too, because I didn't remember then."

**Their mother suddenly became very stern. **

**"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he**

**needs reminding of that on his first day at school."**

**"All right, keep your hair on."**

"She's right though, that would be a rude thing to ask.

**A whistle sounded. **

"Did it really?"

**"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry. **

"Aw, poor Ginny," Neville said.

**"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."**

**"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."**

"Did they?" Draco asked.

"No, they forgot."

"They tried to send me one when I was in the hospital wing," Harry told them.

"Which time?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, you were in there so much the first bed has your name above it," Ron laughed. This made Lily worry for her baby's safety.

_**"George!"**_

**"Only joking, Mom."**

**The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved. **

"Didn't any of you do that?" Ginny asked as everyone giggled.

"No," was pretty much the general answer.

**Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to— but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind. **

"That is really sad," Frank said.

Severus remembered what his first train ride had been like. It felt like this one was described.

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in. **

**"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."**

"Please," Hermione scoffed, "You just wanted to sit with Harry." Ron had a guilty look on his face.

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.**

"Again with the observations!"

**"Hey, Ron."**

**The twins were back. **

**"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train— Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."**

"Merlin I hate spiders!"

**"Right, " mumbled Ron. **

**"Harry, " said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."**

"I think they like you," Remus commented.

"**Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them. **

**"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out. **

"Tactful, as always," Ginny laughed.

"He sounds like Sirius," Remus laughed.

"Yep, both are rude," Neville said.

**Harry nodded. "Oh—well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes, " said Ron. "And have you really got—you know . . ."**

"Obviously the most polite person on the train," Snape said. The Marauders stared at him. "What?"

"You used sarcasm!"

"It's possible, yes."

**He pointed at Harry's forehead. **

**Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared. **

**"So that's where You-Know-Who—"**

"**Yes, " said Harry, "but I can't remember it."**

**"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly. **

**"Well— I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

"Ugh, that's terrible," Lily shuddered.

"He has the worst nightmares," Ron said.

**"Wow, " said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again. **

"Smooth Ron."

**"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.**

"Really?"

"Yep."

**"Er— Yes, I think so, " said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

**"So you must know loads of magic already."**

**The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about. **

"Um, I don't think so, Harry," James laughed.

"I know that _now_."

**"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"**

**"Horrible—well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."**

"I'm so sorry," Lily sighed. The would-be-Potter family group hugged.

**"Five, " said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy.**

"Ron?" Ginny looked at him questioningly. He just waved a hand at her.

**"I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left— Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."**

"You shouldn't be using someone else's wand," Remus said, "that could cause some bad reactions."

**Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep. **

"Hah! Sounds like Pete, doesn't it," Sirius commented. The Trio exchanged uneasy looks.

**"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff— I mean, I got Scabbers instead."**

"At least you have a pet, I didn't get one until my seventh year," Frank said.

**Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window. **

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up. **

"Oh, Ron." Hermione shook her head at him.

**". . . And until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort—"**

**Ron gasped.**

**"What?" said Harry.**

**"**_**You said You-Know-Who's name**_**!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people— "**

"I still think it's pathetic how people can't even say his name," James said darkly.

**"I'm not trying to be **_**brave**_** or anything, saying the name, " said Harry, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn. . . . I bet, " he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."**

"If you actually tried, you would be on the very top of the class," Hermione told him.

**"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."**

"They should have a Magical studies class instead of just Muggle studies."

"That's actually a good idea."

"Always the tone of surprise!"

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.**

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"**

Both Sirius' and Ron's stomachs growled causing everyone else to laugh.

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor. **

**He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry— but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. **

"Stop talking about it!"

"I'm so hungry," Sirius moaned.

**What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts. **

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat. **

**"Hungry, are you?"**

"Why yes, I am, thanks for asking, Ron."

"Welcome, Sirius."

**"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty. **

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."**

"Give him some of your candy, Harry," Lily said sternly.

"Don't worry, Mum, I will."

**"Swap you for one of these, " said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on— "**

"That's nice. You should take lessons, Ron."

"Shut up."

**"You don't want this, it's all dry, " said Ron. "She hasn't got much time, " he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."**

**"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten). **

"Not a surprise, really," Draco said.

**"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not **_**really**_** frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him. **

"Why would we eat _real_ frogs?"

"Yeah, how does that make sense?"

"Well, that's what I thought also," Hermione defended.

**"No, " said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa." **

**"What?"**

**"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know— Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect—famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

"I've got a ton of those," Remus told him.

"Of course you do. You eat at least two chocolate frogs at every meal," James scoffed.

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore. **

"DUMBLEDORE DUMBLEDORE!"

**"So **_**this**_** is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

"No, really?"

"Hush, Neville."

**"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa—thanks—"**

**Harry turned over his card and read:**

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**

**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**

This caused the Golden Trio to facepalm and get weird looks from the others.

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.**

**"He's gone!"**

"Well, yeah. Why would he just stand there all day?"

"Because that's what muggle pictures do."

"That's stupid."

**"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day, " said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her . . . Do you want it? You can start collecting."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.**

"I want a chocolate frog now," Ron whined.

"Well, sucks for you, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

**"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

**"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "**_**Weird**_**!"**

"It really is."

**Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. **

**"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor— you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once."**

"I've had one of those before," Alice said, "they are disgusting."

"I'd hope that they wouldn't be good. That would be disturbing," Snape commented.

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner. "Bleaaargh— see? Sprouts."**

**They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper. **

"See, you are definitely a Gryffindor."

**The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills. **

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

"WHOO NEVILLE!"

"Shut up, Sirius."

"WHAT?"

"SHUT UP!"

"You don't have to yell, Lilykins."

**"Sorry, " he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"**

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

"You still have Trevor?" Frank grinned.

"He was yours?"

"Yep, I got him in my seventh year as a graduation present. It was a pretty lousy one at that."

"I love him, though," Neville said.

**"He'll turn up," said Harry. **

**"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him . . . "**

**He left. **

**"Don't know why he's so bothered, " said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."**

"Then stop talking."

"You stop talking."

"No, you."

"Shut up!"

**The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.**

**"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. **

"He should," Harry grumbled.

**"I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look . . . "**

**He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end. **

"That shouldn't happen," Snape told him.

**"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway— "**

**He had just raised his 'wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes. **

"Toadless?"

"Yep. Without a toad."

**"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one, " she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth. **

"Merlin, that was a horrible description," Hermione groaned, putting her face in her hands.

"Sorry, 'Mione," Harry laughed.

**"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

**"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."**

**She sat down. Ron looked taken aback. **

"Blunt aren't you?" Frank asked.

"Yes, she is," Ron and Harry said. They both promptly got smacked.

**"Er— all right."**

**He cleared his throat.**

_**"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, **_

_**Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**_

"I don't think that's a real spell," Lily commented.

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.**

"Of course nothing happened."

**"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got**

**my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard— I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough—I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"**

"Merlin's pants, you can talk," Sirius said with wide eyes.

"Well, duh," Remus said sarcastically.

"Shut up, Moony."

**She said all this very fast.**

**Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either. **

"No one does," Sirius laughed. Lily, Snape, Hermione, and Remus glared at him.

**"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered. **

**"Harry Potter," said Harry.**

**"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course— I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in **_**Modern Magical History**_** and **_**The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts**_** and **_**Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century**_**."**

"Whoa! Cool!"

"I've read those," Ginny smiled.

**"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed. **

**"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me, " said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. . . . Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

"You talk a lot."

"I was excited," Hermione blushed.

"No, you always talk like that."

"Shut up, Ronald." Hermione glared at him and moved to sit on the other side of the room.

**And she left, taking the toadless boy with her. **

"Once again with the toadlessess!"

**"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it, " said Ron. He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell— George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

"Why else would he give it to you?"

**"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry. **

**"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw **_**would**_** be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

"Ugh, that be horrible," James shuddered.

"It is not," Draco and Snape stated.

**"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"**

**"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.**

**"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind off houses.**

"That was nice, Harry," Lily cooed.

**"So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"**

**Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school. **

**"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts, " said Ron. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the **_**Daily Prophet**_**, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles—someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

"It would be so cool to study dragons, just imagine."

"I'm not particularly fond of them," Harry chuckled.

"Why not?" Alice asked. Harry just smiled and the kids from the future laughed.

**Harry stared.**

**"Really? What happened to them?"**

**"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."**

"Who would be stupid enough to break into Gringotts?" Frank asked, shaking his head in disbelief. The kids from the future discreetly looked at the Golden Trio.

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.**

**"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked. **

"Why would you ask that? Of course he wouldn't know," Ginny spat at her brother. Ron just shrugged.

"What is your Quidditch team, anyway?" James asked.

"I'm partial to the Holyhead Harpies," Harry grinned as he wrapped an arm around Ginny's shoulders.

"Yep, sure," James snickered.

**"Er— I don't know any," Harry confessed.**

**"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world— " And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time. **

"Oh, who is it?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"If you'll shut up, we'll find out," Lily growled at him.

**Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

"I'm not that pale," Draco scowled.

"Yes you are."

**"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

"Duh," Ron said.

**"Yes, " said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both**

**of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards. **

"That's what they are."

**"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

"I think your name is stupid," Sirius told Draco.

"Because you can talk," Draco drawled.

** "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

Everybody started shouting obscenities at Draco.

"Just calm down! It was in the past!"

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."**

"Oh please."

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it. "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks, " he said coolly. **

"YOU TELL HIM HARRY!" the Marauders shouted.

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. **

"Stop noticing everything," Draco growled.

**"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter, " he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."**

"Beat them up, Harry!"

"Believe me I want to everyday."

**Both Harry and Ron stood up. **

**"Say that again, " Ron said, his face as red as his hair. **

**"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.**

"YES!" the Maruders shouted.

**"Unless you get out now, " said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

"GRYFFINDOR!"

**"But we don't feet like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron— Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.**

"Oh Merlin, what happened?"

**Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle – Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off**

**and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once.**

"WHOO! GO SCABBERS!"

"The one good thing he has ever done," Ron mumbled to Harry.

**Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

"DUN DUN DUNNNNN!"

"Oh hush, Sirius," Hermione growled.

**"What **_**has**_** been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

"**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at  
Scabbers. "No— I don't believe it— he's gone back to sleep."  
**

"That's pathetic," Draco said.

"He has gurgles in his brain," Luna explained.

**And so he had.  
**

**"You've met Malfoy before?"  
**

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.  
**

**"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the  
first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said  
they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's  
father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to  
Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"**

"That was rather rude, Ron," Ginny said.

"Sorry, Hermione," Ron apologized.**  
**

**"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the  
front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't  
been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"  
"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would  
you mind leaving while we change?"**

Hermione glared at Ron who held up his hands in surrender.**  
**

**"All right— I only came in here because people outside are behaving  
very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a  
sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you  
know?"**

"She notices everything, too?"

"Yep. It gets annoying really."

**Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was  
getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple  
sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.**

"HOGWARTS WHOOT WHOOT!"

"Shut up, Black," Snape grimaced.

**He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes.  
Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath  
them.**

"That's a good look, Weasley," Draco snickered.

**A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five  
minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken  
to the school separately."**

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and  
joined the crowd thronging the corridor.**

"Finally, that was a long train ride," Luna sighed.

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in  
the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the  
students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years  
over here! All right there, Harry?"**

"Hagrid!"

"Yes, we know! Just shut up!"

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.**

**"C'mon, follow me— any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'  
years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a  
steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry  
thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the  
boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

"Now I know how you feel, Ron," Neville sighed.

"Sorry, Nev," Harry apologized.

**"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over  
his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

This "Oooooh," was repeated in the room.

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in  
the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

"Your descriptions are still beautiful," Ginny sighed as she closed her eyes and imagined the castle.

**"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little  
boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed  
into their boat by Neville and Hermione. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid,  
who had a boat to himself. "Right then— FORWARD!"**

"You didn't have to shout, Potter."

"But it was in capitol letters, Lily dear."

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the  
lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at  
the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer  
and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

"The castle is gorgeous from there," Alice commented. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

**"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they  
all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain  
of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. **

"Yeah keep your heads down. It hurts to hit those rocks," Sirius whined.

"You hit your head on them?" Harry laughed.

"Yeah, but only because James pushed me."

"You had pushed me into water before that!"

"Yeah, well. Yeah."

**They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

**"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the  
boats as people climbed out of them.**

"YAY!"

"HAPPINESS AND SMILES!" Sirius shouted.

**"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they  
clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at  
last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.**

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door.**

**"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"**

Everybody laughed, as expected.

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle  
door.**

"WHOO WHOO HOGWARTS!" Sirius started a happy dance so James pushed him over the back of the couch. "That hurt!"

"Good!"

A/N: So sorry that it took me long to post this chapter. DON'T HATE ME! I LOVE YOU ALL! I like reviews. **hint: they inspire me to write faster**!

_Love always,_

_Sasha Grey_


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